FALSE consciousness is a term used to describe the way in which exploited, oppressed or disadvantaged groups in society accept, assimilate and indeed actively defend or promote ideas which ultimately act against their own interests. 

It can apply to individuals, to the working class as a whole, or to sections of it. It is closely related to the idea of hegemony (see Q&A 82) and to Marxist concepts of alienation, reification and fetishism (see Q&A 51).

“False consciousness” often manifests itself as so-called “common sense”. Examples include the notion that capitalism, “private enterprise”, profit, “the market” is simply how things are. That those who have power or earn more do so because they are brighter or work harder than the rest of us; that differences in opportunity or in the social position of men and women are natural, determined by their genes; that the status quo is simply just “the way the world works” and can’t be changed.